A wide variety of treadmill-type exercisers are taught in the literature and marketed commercially. The same is true of devices which are intended to mimic cross-country skiing. Typical patented skiing-type exercise devices are:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,117,957 issued to H. F. Heller. The device of this patent has a base on which rests a frame for a treadmill, and an upright which is gripped by the exerciser, the treadmill has projections which fit into slots in the upright. The exerciser selects one of several slots to position the treadmill at a desired angle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,540 issued to Chi-Tsung Yu, et. al. This patent teaches a scissors jack for elevating a treadmill bed to a desired level.
Other patents combine a treadmill type exerciser with a foot massager. Typical patents teaching this approach are: U.S. Pat. No. 931,394 to Alfred Day which teaches a "treadmill" made up of a frame enclosing rollers which make up the "treads" and a vertical support. The frame can be set to a preferred angle and can be raised so that it is perpendicular to the floor on which the vertical support rests. U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,090 issued to Ernst Kaeser; U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,529 to V. A. Salm et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,246 issued to D. J. Gibbs; U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,521 to Hsi-Hsim Yang and U.K. 2,043,464 to D. J. Gibbs all teach variations on the central theme.
Still others provide foot massaging devices for use by individuals in physical therapy or otherwise. U.S. Patents teaching massaging devices utilizing rollers include: U.S. Pat. No. D101,862 to Joseph Fehn teaches a frame holding two sets of rollers. The roller at the lower end has parallel grooves cut into a solid bar of uniform thickness. Each of the upper rollers have a different surface "envelope". U.S. Pat. No. 2,512,904 to A. J. Strelecky teaches a frame holding rollers which have no grooves and are of uniform diameter. U.S. Pat. No. 2,593,982 to C. D. Cash teaches a unit which provides frictional and kneading actions. The rollers alternate between flat ridges and flat valleys of equal width. In other words, the roller longitudinal surface is in the form of a square wave.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,205,888 to J. H. Stroop teaches a unit having rollers with a roller surface in the form of a longitudinal sinusoidal form.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,940 to Robert Ruf teaches a unit with an irregular surface of hills and valleys.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,185 to Chien-Chung Chang teaches a frame enclosing rollers which can be set at an angle for a foot massage.
This invention is an exerciser/massager unit which provides a combination of an exerciser and a removable massager. A person wanting to use the exerciser can use the combination and the person undergoing physical therapy can obtain "shiatsu" type massage by using only the massager when unable to exercise on the exerciser. Later, when the patient is stronger, the unit provides an opportunity to get a foot massage while exercising.